KUDOS TO 'GRASS ROOTS' MOVEMENT

It was a "grass roots" movement in the right direction (up) last week
when the small Idaho city of Hailey passed three out of four
pro-marijuana initiatives that were on the ballot. Hailey citizens
have thereby chosen to help bring some sanity into the drug laws of
America and into the lives of the people impacted by them, starting at
home.

They voted to legalize the medical use of marijuana, to make
enforcement of marijuana laws the lowest priority and to legalize
industrial uses of hemp within the city. Unfortunately, an initiative
to regulate and tax marijuana sales and establish a Community
Oversight Committee did not receive enough votes. Marijuana is not
going to go away, and having the elected government of the community
tax and regulate it is a far better system for society than the one in
place.

Well, these things take time. It's only been a bit more than 70 years
since Prohibition failed for the same reasons the war on drugs will
fail, has failed and is failing.

Bravo, citizens of Hailey. May the communities of America catch up
with you as soon as possible. May the state and federal governments
learn (re-learn?) what they learned (or not) more than 70 years ago
when the 18th Amendment to the Constitution and prohibition of the
sale and consumption and possession of alcohol to drink was repealed.

Not likely that the country will catch up to Hailey (and a few other
communities), some will say.

Not in my lifetime, say many.

Over my dead body, say a few.

Eventually, the sooner the better, say others, including a majority of
the voters of Hailey.

Good for them.

A lot of the drug laws of America are absurd, none more so than the
ones covering marijuana, and not only because they don't work.
Marijuana is far less destructive than alcohol, which inspired the
18th Amendment.

Prohibition failed, as anyone with the slightest common sense could
have predicted. Prohibition ensured that a few people, some of them
not very good people, made a great deal of money; and too many people,
most of them good people, had their lives destroyed by the law, not
the drug. As a drug, alcohol destroys all too many lives with an
incalculable physical, emotional, mental, social, economic and
ecological cost to the world, but that is a different story. The
destruction it causes cannot be legislated away, as the country came
to recognize in 1933.

1933!

The court, jail, police, probation and legislative resources being
used up to no good end in pursuit and punishment of marijuana
criminals are enormous. Those resources could be and should be devoted
to more significant criminals whose activities do far more damage to
society than those whose crime is smoking (and, sometimes, baking) a
weed. The toll on the lives and productivity of people convicted of
using a substance that is less damaging, both personally and socially,
than the legal-to-use alcohol (or, for that matter, nicotine, which
kills even more people than alcohol) is beyond measure. It is the law,
not the drug, that takes the toll; and, as in the days of prohibition,
the law rewards a few, some of them very bad people, who get
enormously wealthy breaking that law, and damages the lives of many
others, most of them quite good people.

Marijuana for medical purposes is a no-brainer, even for teetotalers,
prohibitionists and others of like mind except perhaps for those who
do not mind or are not aware of the pain that others bear and that
marijuana relieves, cheaply, safely and reliably. Marijuana has proved
to be the best relief for many medical conditions, including but far
from limited to the nausea that accompanies chemotherapy. Hemp is
grown and used in a variety of products in virtually every country in
the world except the United States, giving "Only in America" another
of several current embarrassing connotations. Hemp is used to make
clothing, fabric, twine, rope, bags, paper and many other useful
products, only not in America.

The Office of the National Drug Control Policy describes marijuana
thus: "Short-term effects of marijuana use include problems with
memory and learning, distorted perception, difficulty in thinking and
problem solving, loss of coordination, increased heart rate, and
anxiety." In this context, it is beyond funny that this office is run
out of the Executive Office of the President of the United States, but
it makes one wonder what those who make the marijuana laws of America
have been smoking. Whatever it is, they would do well to pay attention
to the clear-minded, problem-solving democratic voters of Hailey, Idaho.